Devotionals

When we believe in Jesus alone, we are immediately granted the gift of eternal life. There is nothing else we need to do in order to receive this life, and if we think that we must do good works in ...Read More

Our passion for righteousness and mercy is one way we can measure our fervor for the Lord. There are innumerable ways we can pursue both of these actions. Thus, we are unable to complain to God that there have been ...Read More

John Calvin comments on today’s passage, “We have now the principal point or the main hinge of the first part of the this Epistle—that we are justified by faith through the mercy of God alone.” To truly know the gospel ...Read More

Even many professing Christians believe that they become citizens of heaven because they have lived a “good life.” The gospel tells us that no one but Christ has lived a life that is truly good. He alone deserves the kingdom ...Read More

Would it embarrass you to be known as a “righteous person”? We should think about ourselves biblically, and use biblical language as much as possible. We should not let the world scare us away from words like righteous. Instead, we ...Read More

Douglas Moo writes, “Justification by faith is the anthropological reflex of [that is, it reflects] Paul’s basic conviction that what God has done in Christ for sinful human beings is entirely a matter of grace” (Romans, p. 90). We affirm ...Read More

Not all of us tried to earn our way to God by the Mosaic law before knowing Christ. Probably, most of us just sought to do the good we could, hoping it would outweigh our bad deeds. Regardless, we had ...Read More

Paul’s “but now” of Romans 3:21 describes a momentous change in history. The people who lived before Christ lived in an era characterized by unrighteousness and wrath, dwelling under the condemnation of God’s law. Now that Christ has come, we ...Read More

Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary Romans: “Life in the kingdom is about loving the things of God and loving those for whom Christ died. That is the recipe for mature Christian unity.” When we keep in first ...Read More

In 4:4, James warns us against seeking friendship with the world partly because friendship with the world produces ineffectual prayer (vv. 1–3). Instead, we must be friends of God. Elijah was such a friend of God that he was translated ...Read More